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MANAGING CONSTRUCTION: FOCUSING ON WHAT MATTERS

Posted June 24, 2015

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Any larger general contractor or real estate developer can have several projects going on at the same time. As we see with many of our clients, a single person within the organization might be responsible for staying on top of multiple job sites. The project-management challenge in these cases is knowing how to allocate time and attention among the different projects to manage all of them effectively. Rarely – if ever – is this achieved by simply giving every project equal time. With construction cameras at the job sites, project managers can determine where and how to focus their attention.

Construction cameras fundamentally change how project managers use their resources.

Without the benefit of construction cameras, project managers spend about 80 percent of their time and energy just checking on projects. Repeated trips to each job site to verify status, to check for and identify issues leaves little time to actually address issues when they do arise.

Construction cameras reverse that 80-20 split in favor of value-added activities. Whether projects are spread across the country or close to home base, the ability to follow them remotely and view detailed images of the work reduces the time and effort devoted to job site visits, phone calls, and emails. The lion’s share of time and attention can be focused on managing and even preventing issues, coordinating crews and material deliveries more efficiently, and the other functions that positively impact quality, cost, and schedules.

Construction cameras facilitate managing by exception.

When there’s an issue with one project, or even with multiple projects as is bound to happen occasionally, having construction cameras on the job sites helps get things resolved quicker and more easily. For one, being able to see the job site facilitates understanding both the nature of the problem and the likely effectiveness of a proposed solution. With that visibility and insight, you can make informed decisions about what you need to do and how much time you’ll need to devote to seeing that the issue gets fixed. Does this require a trip to the job site or would that be time misspent? Even when a job site visit is called for, you can invest that time and still monitor and track progress on your other projects.

A construction camera enables you to use past projects as benchmarks for current projects.

When you’ve used construction cameras to document multiple projects of the same type, you can use those archived job site images to help you assess progress on projects you’ve got going on now. How does a current project stack up to a successful project at month 2? At month 4? This kind of comparison gives you a good idea if you’re on course to be within budget and on schedule or if there might be issues that need extra time and attention.

The construction camera interface is key for effective project management.

The utility of a camera system as a project management tool lies primarily in the user interface. In short, it needs to have the right features and be simple to use. It should provide easy access to high-resolution images from any date and time for all your projects. You should be able to zoom in on problem areas to understand the issues and the solutions. You should also be able to view multiple images on a single screen. With side-by-side images of current and past projects, you can assess progress of a current project against past projects in the same time frame or phase. Quad view, with four images from any date and time across days, weeks, and months lets you see how a problem project is progressing and that the on-track projects are staying on track.

When it comes to multiple job sites, construction cameras can make the difference between you effectively managing your projects, on the one hand, or, on the other hand, letting your projects manage you.